Film Flam

Fanning the Fantastic flames of P.T. Anderson's 'The Master'

Yesterday the Toronto International Film Festival announced the first wave of its 2012 festival programming, including To the Wonder, the latest from Austinite Terrence Malick. But – fingers crossed – maybe just as significant is what wasn't announced?

Malick's films are typically shrouded in mystery, but the TIFF announcement shines a little light at least on the Oklahoma-shot production with the following logline: "Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck and Javier Bardem star in the new film from Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), about a man who reconnects with a woman from his hometown after his marriage to a European woman falls apart."

Indie auteur Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) will open the festival with his time-travel actioner Looper. Other directors who'll screen at TIFF include Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha), David O. Russell (The Silver Linings Playbook), Joss Whedon (backyard production Much Ado About Nothing), Joe Wright (Anna Karenina), and Mira Nair (The Reluctant Fundamentalist).

Notably not included among the Toronto premieres is Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, further fueling rumors that the film – Anderson's first since There Will Be Blood – will premiere at this September's Fantastic Fest instead. According to an Indiewire blog (working off of fan intel), Anderson and composer-slash-Radiohead-guitarist Jonny Greenwood were pictured hanging out at the Alamo South Lamar with Tim League recently.

If this doesn't have you COMPLETELY FREAKING THE FUCK OUT, then clearly you haven't watched the trailer yet. Or the teaser trailers. Or ever watched a P.T. Anderson movie, ever. Seriously, what have you been doing with your days?? Stop everything and watch the trailer. Now. Here, we'll make it easy for you...

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Remember that rumor we reported a couple weeks ago that Robert Byington's Somebody Up There Likes Me had been picked up for distribution? File under straight-up fact now: Tribeca Film will release the indie comedy in spring 2013.

The distribution plan is for the increasingly popular day and date release, wherein the theatrical release coincides with availability on on-demand platforms like iTunes and VUDU. The Chronicleinterviewed Byington back in March prior to the film's world premiere at SXSW (check out red carpet looks from the premiere here, including the damned-dapper producer/costar Nick Offerman), and you'll be hearing more from us on the subject in 2013. But in the meantime, watch this space: Bob – who occasionally acts, in his own movies and others' – interviewed his The Color Wheel director Alex Ross Perry for us, in anticipation of the film's Austin theatrical run next week; we'll post the Q&A here later this week.

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Travel Channel fixture Adam Richman – you know, the ever-sporting Man from Man Vs. Yet Another Heart Attack on a Plate – was in Austin a while back scouting sandwiches for his next show, the currently airing Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America. While in town, Richman chowed down on a sliced beef brisket sandwich at The Salt Lick and the seared beef tongue sandwich at The Noble Pig, and not the Nobel Pig, as the press release repeatedly calls it (pork meat for Mensa members only?). The Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America: Southwest episode airs next Wednesday, Aug. 1, 8pm on the Travel Channel.

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Unless you've stopped reading the papers, torched your TV, and kicked your Internet to the curb, you might have heard a little something about Matthew McConaughey The Comeback Kid. (See The Lincoln Lawyer, Bernie, Magic Mike – and if he doesn't get a Best Supporting Actor nom for his cuckoo-intense performance in the latter – conducted largely in a banana hammock, no less – then the Academy's a dolt.) That comeback continues with Killer Joe, an NC-17-rated thriller which stars McConaughey as an unhinged cop who moonlights as a contact killer. Costar Thomas Haden Church will introduce the film and host a reception on Thursday, Aug. 2 at the Violet Crown Cinema; you can find out about ticket info here. Killer Joe opens Aug. 3, which is incidentally the same day you can find our interview with film legend Billy Friedkin, who directs.